


Hiraeth - Budapest

by CelticCross



Series: Hiraeth [6]
Category: Hawkeye (Comics), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Winter Soldier (Comics)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-20
Updated: 2021-01-20
Packaged: 2021-03-12 01:29:05
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,150
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28877223
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CelticCross/pseuds/CelticCross
Summary: What really happened in Budapest?this is the last of the drabbles - a new long story will appear soon :)Comments and kudos are always welcome and I'm thankful for them, but don't feel you need to :)
Relationships: Clint Barton/Natasha Romanov, James "Bucky" Barnes/Original Female Character(s)
Series: Hiraeth [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2114094
Kudos: 4





	Hiraeth - Budapest

Sam sat back on the sofa watching his friends, sipping a glass of red wine. He was stuffed full of turkey, roast potatoes, ham and various veg; he just hadn’t been able to sit back and watch Darcy eat alone after her abrupt entrance and the laughter that had ensued, much to Darcy’s surprise.

They had opened presents, each had $20 to buy something small or funny for each other. He looked at what Bucky had bought him, grinning at the hanging air freshener that was meant for a car but he just knew it was for his wings, especially after looking at the grin Bucky had given him. Leigh had bought him chocolates as he was a sweet toothed fiend. He’d bought Leigh a sweet orange and lemongrass solid massage bar, handing it to her with a grin at Bucky.

He’d spoken with his brother and all was well with the family, his sister in law was good, the kids were fine and his brother was happy, that’s all he could really ask for. He sat back just listening to the quiet bubble of voices around him; Bucky was chatting softly with Leigh, neither one willing to take their eyes off the other, Steve was listening as Darcy chatted baby clothes with Nat, and Clint was watching on proudly.

“…like fucking Budapest all over again.”

Sam looked over to see Nat laughing, his eyes narrowing as a smirk grew.

“Hey Hawkman, what the fuck happened in Budapest? You promised to tell me, so spill, tell us, cause you can bet we’re all dying to know…” Sam sat up, pinning Clint with his gaze.

“Oh…what?...nah…no one wants to know about Budapest,” Clint grinned resting back against the sofa, his hand on Nat’s leg.

“I do…” Bucky said, raising his hand.

“Me too.” Leigh agreed.

“I’d like to hear about it.” Steve replied.

“Yeah Clint, spill, this has been driving me crazy for years.” Darcy said, looking at Clint.

Nat turned to Clint with a small smile on her face.

“I guess it’s time to let them know Hawk…” she said softly, “they’ll only bug you if you don’t.”

Clint sat forward, reaching for his beer, a grin breaking out on his boyishly handsome face, blonde hair flopping in his eyes.

“Ok, I’ll tell you but don’t say I didn’t warn you…the truth is…the truth is…nothing happened in Budapest.”

“What the fuck? No, you don’t get away with that Hawk, I’ve read the report.” Leigh suddenly said, sitting forward to glare at him.

“Yeah, I know, but that’s the report I gave to Nick, truth is, it was a boring in and out info and kill mission and it was over in ten minutes flat…the report…,” he laughed, ”the report… do you remember Smithson? The guy from black ops?”

Leigh nodded, “Yeah, what happened to him?”

“Died in Romania, shot in a robbery. Unfortunate bystander in a shop, poor bastard.”

“Shit, I didn’t know, but yeah I remember him, always full of jokes.” She frowned at the loss of a good agent.

“Yeah well, he and I had a competition regarding the reports over the years. We added bits in to see if anyone noticed, and I guess by the time we got to Budapest I let my imagination run away with me."

“So you didn’t run down the street butt naked, covered in ants?”

“Nope.”

“And Nat didn’t dangle from a chandelier, twelve feet in the sir above a tank full of electric eels?” she glanced at Nat who shook her head.

“What the fuck?” Bucky muttered, “Electric eels…and you thought what? No one would notice?”

“It was me…” Clint replied, grinning.

“That’s a fair point man, no one would think anything you reported was a lie, you’re a fucking dumpster fire.” Sam laughed.

“Hey, not fair man.” Clint grinned.

“But accurate.” Nat said, smiling at him.

“So what else did you put in this report?” Bucky asked, intrigued by the twisted mind of Clint Barton.

“Ok, from the beginning, Nat and me, we were sent to Budapest to get info from and take out, if need be, István Szabó, yet another banker, working with some unsavoury characters and involved with the local mob, also turned out to be Hydra but that’s another story, so Nat and I get to Budapest, check in to the hotel we’d been given, which was rank so we found another.”

“Rank?” Leigh asked.

“He means bugged by the state, so we left a few things to show we had checked in, then found a small place to rent. I speak Hungarian, so it wasn’t a problem to rent a flat.” Nat smiled fondly at Clint.

“Anyway, we moved into the flat and began new lives as back packing tourists. Nat found a job at a shop, conveniently near to where this guy worked, and funnily enough the exact coffee shop he went into for lunch. She starts to flirt with him every day and soon enough he’s inviting her on dates and so on, until the chance to get to him arose. He was holding a party at his house, so I get a job as a waiter after one of the guys mysteriously dropped out from the catering company this guy used. So picture this, the evening of the party. Nat is already there dressed in her finest, with István, cosying up to him, his hands everywhere…"

“His hands were just clammy…couldn’t kiss either.” Nat said.

Clint just stared at her as she grinned.

“Can I continue?” he said, smiling at her.

“I don’t know, can you?” she smirked back at him.

“As I was saying, Nat was there already, when I turned up, in a fucking tuxedo, ready to deliver drinks. Plan was to give him a tainted glass of champagne, whereby Nat would take him to his home office, only the fucker didn’t drink. In the end Nat had to seduce him whilst I ransacked his office, found what we needed, disposed of him and we got the hell out of there. It was so boring and matter of fact that I decided to embellish it, partly cause it was funny and partly cause I was a little drunk. We had three days before our extraction was coming to get us, so we were holed up in this tiny flat, drinking a bottle of champagne Nat had managed to pinch on the way out of the party, coming up with the most outrageous things we could put in the report,” he paused , looking at their faces as they hung on every word.

“So…?” Leigh breathed, fascinated.

“So, I may have added in a bit where I fell from a window whilst chasing one of the bad guys and ended up in a nest of biting ants, hence the fact I was running down the road butt naked covered in ants, and Nat wanted a bit where she was swinging from a chandelier above some kind of danger pit…”

“Like Indiana Jones, right?” Bucky said, an eyebrow raised as he recalled the film he’d watched with Sam a few weeks previously.

“A bit yeah.” Nat admitted, a small smile on her face, “Always wanted to swing on a chandelier and take out the bad guys.”

Leigh shook her head, laughing at the pair of them. Life was never dull with these two.

“So anyway, after we’d come up with those, we added a couple more, being chased by rabid dogs, through a forest, all while being butt naked and covered in ants, before diving into a local river to get rid of the ants and nearly freezing to death, before taking out the guy I was chasing with one arrow left.”

“Anything else?” Leigh laughed as Bucky chuckled beside her.

Steve was just staring at Clint, a small grin on his face and Darcy’s mouth was hanging open, hooked on everything Clint was saying.

“Aww man, I wish I’d known you way back when, you guys are hilarious,” Sam laughed, “But shit, I’ve met Nick Fury, how the hell did you get this report past him? I mean that guy was sharp as hell…”

“Fucked if I know, he took it from me, read it and that was that, though he did keep grinning at me for the next couple of weeks whenever he saw me, so…” Clint pondered.

“He didn’t.” Leigh admitted, as all eyes turned to look at her, Clint’s mouth dropping open.

“What?” he asked, his eyebrows crawling into his hairline, face turning a little red.

“He knew…he knew what really happened and had the report rewritten,” she looked at his shocked face, “What? I have access to all Nick’s files, even the hidden ones for my team, so…he knew, that’s why he was grinning. He admired your cojones for putting the report in at all and then he turned to the guy who’d been assigned to watch you,” she looked at his face and smiled, “Oh Clint, you really think Nick didn’t know what a dumpster fire you are? You really think he sent you in on missions without some kind of back up? Why do you think he grudgingly allowed me to join you and Nat? He, mistakenly, thought that I’d keep you both in line.”

“Well that was a mistake…” Nat grinned, finding her voice.

“And then some…” Leigh cackled, reaching out to high five her across the coffee table.

“But…but…what?” Clint stammered, unable to take in what she was saying, “he knew?” his voice rose slightly.

“Yeah, he knew, but he trusted you were a good agent, even though you’re a bit of a disaster, so he never said anything to you, but it was noted that he’d spoken with other agents involved in the competition.”

“So that’s why Smithson stopped…I did wonder but he never said anything to me, just smiled.” Clint grinned at her, “so all this time, you knew and you never said anything. I’m impressed babybird.”

“Boss lady remember?” Leigh smirked, “I’m putting coffee on, anyone want one?” she smiled at the show of hands, “Buck? Wanna help me?” she grinned at him as she got up from the sofa.

“Yeah cause bags of coffee are soooo heavy.” Clint laughed.

“Fuck off, birdbrain.” Bucky muttered, grinning as he got up.

“Hey, that’s my horrible nickname.” Sam laughed.

Bucky gave them both the finger, “Bite me.”

He found Leigh dissolved in giggles as she tried to scoop coffee grounds into the machine.

“Doll?” he grinned, reaching to take the scoop from her shaking hands.

“Oh…oh…did you see his face? When I told,” she wheezed, helpless as laughter spilling out of her, “when I told him about Nick knowing…I can’t even…” she turned, burying her head in his chest, shaking with laughter, her legs trembling as Bucky held her up.

He rested his chin on her head, feeling her shaking with glee in his arm, as he reached out to switch the coffee machine on.

“But…but that’s not all…I never told him about the note…oh my god…the note…” she took a shuddering breath, trying to get herself back under some semblance of control, “Nick left a note attached to Clint’s fake report saying if he ever tried it again, Nick would think about a kill order on him…and I think he meant it…and Smithson, poor Smithson was threatened with sanctions if he didn’t shut the competition down. I also know what really happened.” she paused.

“So he just lied about it being boring?” Bucky frowned, looking down at her.

“Oh, it was anything but boring; not as exciting as he made out but I know why he embellished it, and I understand his reasons.” She sobered up, frowning slightly.

“You’re never telling me are you?” Bucky whispered, pressing a soft kiss against her shoulder, moving back to look at her.

“No.” she grinned back, shaking her head.

Sam sat back on the sofa, sipping the dark, rich coffee, watching his family as they chatted amongst themselves. He loved these people with all his heart and couldn’t think of a better group of misfits to spend Christmas with. They were misfits, fuck ups and one out of control dumpster fire, but they were his and he would kill for them; hell he’d probably die for them.

{Riley, old man, wish you were here as you’d fit right in} he thought, smiling, raising his eyes up with a grin, {hell, you’d probably be swapping stories with Clint right now, each trying to out do the other. I miss you man. Merry Christmas}

“Sam? Mince pie?” Darcy held a plate out to him, noticing he was lost in his thoughts.

“Hell yeah, more food, just what I need.” He laughed, taking a pie.


End file.
